ISU Sycamores control early, fall late at Western Illinois, 46-41

Redshirt freshman Josh Jones recovered an onsides attempt on the ensuing kickoff and the ISU momentum remained strong. The Sycamores continued their offensive outburst with a six-play, 53-yard scoring drive which was capped with a 25-yard scoring strike from Murphy to Sam Logan as 14:23 remained in the second period. The touchdown gave the Sycamores its first lead of the game at 14-10.

After a defensive stop, the Sycamores appeared to be stopped on fourth down, but Bryan McCulley took a direct snap out of the punt formation and raced 31 yards for a first down. After a quarterback sneek by Murphy kept the drive alive on fourth-and-one inside the Leathernecks’ five-yard line, Robert Barcliff scored his first career touchdown on the ground, from two yards out, to give ISU the 21-10 lead with 6:20 left before halftime.

WIU added a one-yard run by Herb Donaldson with less than a minute remaining to inch closer to the Sycamores heading in for the break, 21-17.

The Leathernecks attained their early 10-0 lead on a 47-yard field goal by kicker Taylor Rowan with 12:04 left in the first quarter and another one-yard scoring rush by Donaldson with 5:46 showing on the clock. WIU started both of those scoring drives on the ISU half of the field, following a Carl Berman fumble and a short punt by Chris Johansen.

Western took the opening kickoff of the second half and raced down the field looking to take the lead in the contest for the first time since the opening quarter, until the Sycamores forced a turnover on downs when senior Madison Miller sacked WIU quarterback Steve LaFalce for a loss to give Indiana State excellent field position near the 50-yard line.

Indiana State strung together a couple of first downs, but Barcliff coughed the ball up deep in Western territory to keep the Leathernecks in the contest. WIU could not convert as the Sycamore defense was able to stop them again on fourth down on the next drive.

And then it was the Sycamores’ turn to get to work. Murphy found Jerimy Robinson for a four-yard touchdown strike with 5:09 left in the third quarter to give Indiana State a 28-17 lead.

Western Illinois went on to score the game’s next 12 points to take a 29-28 advantage with 1:46 left in the third quarter. ISU muffed a kickoff return attempt to set up the second of quick back-to-back scores. The Leathernecks’ Herb Donaldson rushed 35 yards for a score with 2:19 left in the third period, and then he scored again with 1:46 left - a span of just 33 seconds - to put WIU ahead.

Following a Murphy interception, Donaldson found the end zone for the fifth time on the day with 12:49 left in the fourth quarter to give the Leathernecks a 36-28 lead.

ISU inched within 36-34 when Logan tossed a short pass to Josh Jones for a score with 8:15 left in the game off a fake field goal. The two-point conversion failed.

After Herb Donaldson raced up the middle for a 33-yard rush with 5:35 left in the game to make the score 43-34, Logan caught a 21-yarder of his own from Murphy to make the score 43-41 with just over four minutes left.

The Sycamores held WIU to a field goal with 57 seconds left on the clock to make the score 46-41, but could not come-from-behind to win as Murphy tossed four consecutive incomplete passes to end the game.

On the day, Barcliff led the Sycamore rushing attack by carrying the ball a career-best 29 times for 134 yards as well as his first career touchdown.

In his first start under center since the fifth game of the season, Murphy was 18-of-30 for 243 yards with three touchdowns passing.